#climate science

• Iceberg — A huge mass of ice structurally detached from a polar glacier or a continental ice shelf, drifting on the surface of oceans, carried by marine currents. From a physical standpoint, it is characterized by the fact that only a small part of its total volume (approximately ten percent) is visible at the water's surface, while the massive, microscopic core is submerged, representing a major danger to global maritime navigation.
• Icefield — A technical neologism and geographical term borrowed from the English language (icefield), used in glaciology to denote a massive ice field or a vast, continuous expanse of interconnected glaciers covering a mountainous area or a high plateau. Structurally, this glacial mass accumulated over millennia is topographically bounded by mountain ridges piercing through it as nunataks, functioning as a vital hydrological reserve and as an extremely sensitive microscopic indicator in monitoring global climate changes.
• Albedometer — A precision meteorological instrument consisting of two coupled pyranometers (one facing upward and one downward), used for the direct measurement of a surface's albedo by simultaneously determining global solar radiation and that reflected by the ground.